PHILADELPHIA — Those outside of his camp expect Brett Brown to fret. They expect Brown to spend sleepless nights wringing his hands until they chap, and to grow increasingly more uneasy with each defeat.

That’s just not how it is, Brown said.

“This is not slit-your-wrist time. This is not even close to that,” the 76ers coach said Saturday night. “This is about building a program and understanding the short-term pain for a lot of long-term gain. That’s my vision and how I approach it.”

That plan Brown mentioned probably didn’t factor in etching his Sixers into the franchise’s record book in the most undesirable of fashions.

Advertisement

Already the owners of the team’s longest home losing streak, the Sixers matched the club record for the lengthiest overall skid. A 103-77 loss to Memphis assured the Sixers (15-51) of that. Brown’s team has not won since Jan. 29, dropping 20 in a row. The Sixers haven’t earned a win at home since Jan. 15. Both are benchmarks.

Next up for the Sixers: Equaling (or surpassing) the NBA’s all-time skid. That belongs to the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers, who dropped 26 in a row, and stands as the last box of inadequacy the Sixers have yet to tick.

As the losses pile up, the message from Brown has changed. So has his tone.

It wasn’t quite two weeks ago when Brown predicted that his team “has some wins in them.” In the next breath, he had said a victory would serve to validate the work and time the Sixers are putting in at the tail end of a season wrought with losses.

Saturday, Brown was harping upon far-different virtues. He said winning — on this night, in this month, or even in this season — is not the Sixers’ chief focus. He said he’s more concerned with developing the players on his roster than fussing over wins and losses. He said he believes the Sixers’ rebuild will require three to five years, after previously refusing to put a timeline on it.

And he said as much outside his team’s locker room and at a volume that would be frowned upon in a library.

“I mean this: I am so not concerned about that,” Brown said. “I’ve been asked by so many people, ‘Why would you take the job? You’re going to screw up your coaching percentage winning record.’ As if I cared about that. I knew what I was getting into. I’m 53 years old. The challenge of this trumps everything for me. What’s going to happen – and it’s happening now — is a highlight, as it should be. You have to do your job. There’s a losing streak here. There’s another possibly long losing streak that could tie or break (a record). I am not even thinking like that. I’m not.”

The Sixers’ latest defeat wasn’t always out of their control, or all that painful to watch.

The Grizzlies led by only one, 22-21, after the first quarter. And when the Sixers’ Tony Wroten swatted Memphis’ Tony Allen from behind to open the second quarter, Wroten playfully gave Allen an earful.

Turnaround is fair play, however. After Allen, who Wroten regarded as a mentor during his rookie season in Memphis, knocked down a 3-pointer from the corner, the elder statesman made sure he rubbed Wroten’s forehead as Allen passed him on his way down the court.

Memphis (39-27) opened up the third quarter on a 17-6 run and put the game out of reach. Considering the Sixers have not led in the fourth quarter of any game during their losing streak, their margin for error is non-existent.

“We have no margin for error,” Brown clarified. “ … Any win we have right now would be considered an upset. Clearly.”

The losses do not matter to Brown, if you’re to take the first-year coach at his word.

“This isn’t me trying to put on my brave face and say something that sounds good. I’m serious as a heart attack,” Brown said. “We’re coming in here and whatever will happen, will happen. We will or we won’t. We have a roster that needs to be developed. We have a situation that is very unique to the NBA and here I am.

“That’s how I’m going about it. To suggest things where it’s, ‘Oh my God, you don’t want your name associated with it, or with these players,’ not for me. It’s not something that influences how I do my job. I am purposefully just moving it aside and putting it in the correct perspective.”

NOTE: The Sixers’ James Anderson left the game in the fourth quarter after sustaining a right quad contusion. Anderson was helped off the floor with 7:14 left in the game. A play earlier, while handling the ball, Anderson had collided with a Memphis player and hit the deck. His immediate status was unknown. … Forward Brandon Davies played his first minutes since Jan. 18, when he broke a finger on his right hand.